ROOM AT THE TOP

Joe Lampton arrives in Warnley to take up a secure but poorly paid post in the Borough Treasurer's Department. Determined to make good, and ignoring the warnings of Soames, a colleague, he fastens his attentions upon Susan Brown, daughter of the local industrial magnate. Brown deals with the situation by sending Susan abroad, and Joe turns for solace to an older unhappily married woman, Alice Aisgill, who falls in love with him. Susan returns from her holiday shortly after the lovers have quarrelled, and is seduced by Joe, who then goes back to Alice. Brown discovers that his daughter is pregnant, and having failed to buy Joe off, he forces him to agree to give up Alice and marry Susan. Deserted and heartbroken, Alice launches on a drinking bout that culminates in her death in a car accident. Joe disappears, and after being beaten unconscious by a gang of toughs for making a drunken pass at a girl, he is rescued by Soames in time for his wedding.

"The film is much better than the novel. But, more than that, it is one of the bravest and best British films in years... The way it tells the story of how Joe Lampton... made good has earned it an X certificate. Not for meretricious horror or peekhole sex: but for sheer blatant honesty. The sex is there, in torrents. The horror is there, and of course, the downtocommonearth words. This is in no sense a U story. But it is real and straightforward, and rings true. In this case at least, and at last, the X certificate looks like a badge of honour." (Derek Monsey, "Sunday Express", January 25, 1959)

Director: Jack Clayton.
Screenplay: Neil Paterson, dal romanzo di John Braine.
Director of photography: Freddie Francis.
Editor: Raliph Kemplen.
Art director: Raiph Brinton.
Music: Mario Nascimbene.
Sound: John Cox.
Cast: Laurence Harvey (Joe Lampton), Simone Signoret (Alice Aisgill), Heater Sears (Susan Brown), Donald Wolfit (Mr. Brown), Ambrosine PhilIpotts (Mrs. Brown), Donald Houston (Charles Soames), Raymond Huntley (Mr. Hoylake), John Westbrook (Jack Wales), Allan Cuthbertson (George Aisgill), Mary Peach (June Samson), Hermione Baddeley (EIspeth)
Production company: John e James Woolf per la Remus.